Kabir Njie:

Thank you for your insightful comments and kind words. The issues you
raised about Kukoi Samba Sanyang, Libya, myth creation and the 1981
aborted coup are very important indeed. These issues however, highlight,
a more important concern, that of insufficient research and data on this
important crisis. Except for Arnold Hughes', John Wiseman's and Sulayman
Nyang's published accounts and a chapter of my dissertation on this
episode, there is little data and information on the issue. A
pro-Government account, according to Hughes, by Swaebou Conateh(1982)and
a fictionalized account of life during the crisis by Nana Humasi (1987),
also exist on the 1981 putsch.  I did not see these and could not
comment on them. (Perhaps Mr. Conateh and others could comment on the
events of 1981).

The lack of adequate data, however, does not necessarily suggest the
lack of Libyan involvement, but simply that data on covert intervention
by foreign leaders are hard to come by and difficult to substantiate
empirically.  Consequently, much of the data are anecdotal.  It would be
incorrect, therefore, to conclude as you did that "there is no evidence
to support Libyan sponsorship of July 1981."  The data may not be as
strong and compelling as most of us would wish, but there are data to
suggest Libyan involvement in the sub-region and The Gambia,
specifically.  Did some members of the former AFPRC kill Ousman "Korro"
Ceesay?  Did Yahya Jammeh give the order for the April 10 and 11
slaughter of innocent students?  You get the drift.

In the 1980's in particular, Gaddafi engaged in what Chester Crocker, a
former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, termed "Gaddafi's
Diplomacy of Subversion in Africa." Presidents Kountche of Niger,
Traore(Tarawalley)of Mali and Nimeiri of Sudan charged the Libyans with
attempts to overthrow their governments.  The Senegal and Gambia
governments also charged the Libyans with imprisoning their nationals
and putting them into military training against their wills to
destabilize their regimes.  Libya was also involved in Uganda in support
of Amin and Dr. Limman of Ghana also accused the Libyan leader of
subversion and expelled its diplomats. Without doubt, Libya's
intervention in Chad was the most dramatic.

Consequently, in 1980 Senegal, Equatorial Guinea and The Gambia broke
diplomatic relations with Libya.  Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and
Ghana expelled Libyan diplomats for subversion and in particular,
Libya's change of its embassies to Peoples' Bureaus.  Kenya  and the
former Upper Volta refused the establishment of these bureaus and Sudan
was convinced that Libya was responsible for a number of unsuccessful
coup attempts.

It is against this backdrop of Libyan subversion in the sub-region and
perceived subversive activity in The Gambia, that led to the break of
diplomatic relations with Libya.  Thus, I am not convinced that the
"myth of Libyan involvement" is a myth in the first place,  nor was
it "concocted" by Sir Dawda.  He felt strongly about it and said in my
interview with him that Gaddafi jokingly admitted to having engineered
the foiled coup.

I have no data to suggest that Kukoi set foot in Libya prior to 1981.
What many are convinced of is that Kukoi was one of many Gambians
trained by the Libyan leader in Libya or in neighboring African
countries where Gaddafi-sponsored dissidents undertook covert and
sometimes overt military action against targeted leaders and countries.
In fact Chester Crocker's testimony to The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on July 8, 1981 presaged the events of July 30, 1981 in The
Gambia ( See West Africa, 20 July 1981, pp.1644-1646).

The current state of the data at hand suggest Libyan involvement in the
1981 foiled coup. I would agree with you that more data and studies on
the events of 1981 are needed, simply because the data are anecdotal.
We need more studies on the issue and my article was but a modest step
in that direction.

Thanks for the comments and for helping me clarify the issue further.

Cheers!
Abdoulaye

ka wrote:
>
> Abdoulaye Saine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> "...Thus, the aborted coup of 1981 was in many ways the brainchild of the
> Libyan leader who recruited and trained Kukoi Samba Sanyang, among others,
> to carry out the coup attempt.  Others would contend, however, that the
> aborted coup was the result of growing domestic inequalities.  To date,
> Kukoi is based in Libya, traveling incognito to Burkina Faso, The Gambia and
> neighboring Guinea-Bissau and Liberia..."
>
> Dr. saine,
>
> This is a very interesting piece and there have been varied reactions to it.
> Overall, I think it has catalouged many interesting developments in our
> recent political history. One point I cannot understand though is how "the
> aborted coup of 1981 was in many ways the brainchild of the Libyan leader
> who recruited and trained Kukoi Samba Sanyang, among others, to carry out
> the coup attempt"
>
> It is a known fact that although Kukoi constantly broadcast calls for help
> from Libya when it became apparent that senegal was going to intervene to
> try to crush the "coup", he, Kukoi had never set foot on Libyan soil prior
> to the 1981. Just a look at the primitive nature of the weapons used during
> the initial stage of the "coup" is one testimony that we had here to do with
> a single man's lust for power.
>
> The myth of Libyan involvement was something concocted and peddled by Jawara
> and his crew inorder to divert attention from the real causes behind the
> coup and why there was mass jubilation, i.e., mass corruption, neglect, etc.
>
> I only wish that Jawara himself could set the record straight here instead
> of letting the myth linger that Libya was behind July 1981. Of course, I
> agree with you that Kukoi did make contact with Libya whiles living in Cuba
> and eventually secured facilities there that were supposed to enhanced his
> second coming, there is no evidence to support libyan sponsorship of July
> 1981.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kabir.
>
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